Page:A Catalogue of Graduates who have Proceeded to Degrees in the University of Dublin, vol. 1.djvu/9

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INTRODUCTION.

The present work was undertaken in imitation of the similar Catalogues of Graduates published at Oxford and Cambridge, and will supply, it is hoped, a want long felt in this University. No one is more conscious than the compiler of the existence in its pages of many errors and imperfections. The first attempt at such a publication, consisting so entirely of names, dates, and numbers, cannot in the nature of things be free from mistakes. The public, it is hoped, will pardon them, and kindly aid the Editor in the attempt to render the book less unworthy of its purpose, by sending to the University printers corrections of such errors and omissions as may be observed.

The object has been to record only the University Degrees, omitting all preferments and honors, ecclesiastical, civil, and military, obtained outside of the University, and all internal distinctions except those of Scholar, Fellow, and Provost of Trinity College, or Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of the University.

The sources from which the following lists have been compiled are the following:—

1. The Register of the College. The earliest volume of this is coeval with the very foundation of the College, and seems to have been kept originally by the Provosts. It contains entries in the handwriting of Provosts Travers, Alvey, Temple, and Bedell. This curious and valuable volume is known as the "Particular Book" from the following endorsement on its parchment cover:—